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Helena flinched when Ratio disappeared, but not because of him, instead it was the sudden flash of light momentarily blinding her.

Helena allowed the healing. It was as if she could sense no danger from him, only calming. Reflexively she'd go to touch the wound after Ratio pulled his hand away.

"He's terrifying. We have to stop him." Helena looked at Ratio, at the young murderer. "Who is he?"

"The nobles?" Helena sat in the vacant chair, her eyes resting on the screen. The longer she was present, the more at ease she felt.

"Is that what he used to... was that whole thing aura?" Helena glanced briefly at Ferox, and then she looked back to Ratio. "Is Zack in danger? If he is, I've got to protect him." No, if Ratio wanted her, he'd have to step up too. "We have to protect him."

Everything was going pretty badly. He managed to catch the revive as it came down to him, Sazerac dropping it at the last second before she was taken down. Benedict became aware of what Alexa was seeing, and Manny let him feel the panic. Let everyone in the link feel it. It made a difficult thing worse, diving after her while trying to stay ahead of the Haunter and avoid the dark pulses. Well, the pulses weren't the hard part, with Essence on his back looking over her shoulder Francis was able to keep an awareness of them.

It made weaving his way out of the way as he dove after Sazerac a heck of a lot easier, but doing it didn't feel any less awkward.

The fact that Drifblim caught the pokemon instead should have gotten him annoyed, instead he was relieved. Francis pulled up, and started his glide somewhere halfway between the two groups, sky and ground. It let Ben become aware of the rest of what was going on. With Sazerac down, they needed something more.

Caboose was released in midair and added immediately to the link. This pokemon didn't know him, and probably wasn't going to like him immediately, but they'd had a bit of time to bond. Still he listened well.

And so when the command sprung into his head to use Magnet Rise, he began to fly, and shot up towards the sky to give a third target to the Haunter. If they didn't immediately target him, and got tunnel vision instead on whoever the spare third Haunter would be targeting now, he would swoop in with a Nuzzle to paralyze the b*****d.

Otherwise, he would do what smaller targets taking advantage of Tailwind and flying with the power of magnetism do, and avoid Haunter's attacks by pushing himself up, and down, around them. Occasionally, there would be a flip as well, in which he would throw an Electro Ball back.

Ratio leaned back, arched his fingers.

'The Pangoro's name is Fury, and he is one of my own pokémon. He led me to you because at your very core you understand a simple truth of the world; some people just need killing. Fury called out to an aura like yours, and you answered. It's how I found you, and it's likely how Jean found you.

'Frankly,' Ratio said, 'I need your help. The nobility are on the brink of plunging the world into a nightmare. I tried to stop them once before and lost. I can teach you to defend yourself against people like Jean Pierre, but in return I ask you help me stop the Court from destroying us all. And if it helps, I promise not to kill your brother.'

Off Route 14

The Drifblim Curse faded when Kabutops scratched a Quagsire, flipped away to save Wailord. Quagsire was about to give chase, until they were tapped on the shoulder by something freezing. They turned around, and then became crumbled into a dead ball of blue flesh in an instant.

Another Quagsire was taken out by Dennis’ Leafeon. His declaration was short lived, as black handprints appeared on both sides of his skull. After the shortest of struggles, he was torn in half from the top to bottom like a sheet of paper, spattering blood all over his vicinity. The two halves of his corpse dropped to the floor.

The Quagsire who had lost track of Drifblim looked at their two fallen comrades, gasped in horror, and Dug underground, high tailing it out of there. Lunch was not worth this.

Kabutops would struggle to peel back the trees under the unrelenting power of nature, but would make progress for nearly a minute until there was a hole big enough for a recall beam. Bridgette returned Wailord just in time, as the whale was about to be victimized by a Curse coming up from behind.

Meanwhile, with Sazerac hanging limply in one arm, Drifblim would knock Escavalier off their direction, buying Gogoat and the twins some time. “Thanks!” they called out simultaneously, going on ahead. That’s when they saw it.

An aerosol can leaking the thinnest of noxious sprays was attached to a tree. There were more attached to the nearby trees, and the twins realized it was a perimeter of Repels. It was a common technique used by farmers to keep wild Pokémon away from crops. Sure enough, when Escavalier got closer again, it paused, then decided to back off reluctantly. Gogoat wrinkled his nose and soldiered through.

That’s when the twins saw the clearing, a building, and a smokestack. “Good lord…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alexa heaved a sigh of relief and took her seat when she saw Drifblim snag Sazerac out of the jaws of defeat. She made a mental note to thank the Pokémon later, even though her trust in these strangers remained shaky. But her celebration was short lived, as the Haunter behind them had a lock, and was charging up a Dark Pulse in its hands. “Roy!”

Roy was already on it, ordering a “Steel Wing!” to his Fearow. “Hang on tight!”

She gripped her arms around the man’s stomach as Fearow tilted to the side until his wings faced vertically. The bird slowed down, wings glowing with a silver power, and sliced his Steel Wing into the Ghost coming up behind them. Haunter was struck down, bobbing away into a tree pillar. It wasn’t a knockout but it bought them some time.

At least, they thought it did.

Alexa looked up. The Curse of Viola was right behind them in the air, dropping like a cannonball aimed for their ride. “The Curse is up there!” Alexa cried in panic, pointing up and shaking Roy.

Roy ordered for evasive action and Fearow flapped hard to the left, but was grazed by the Curse on its way down, knocking the bird off course. The Curse landed on another tree pillar branch, which bent back and created tension. Now Alexa knew that the tree was what catapulted the Curse at them, and it would happen again.

Fearow readjusted from his nosedive and took to a low glide. They passed by Benedict’s flying Pikachu, who had Paralyzed a Haunter just as surprised to see such a sight. The Haunter had slowed dramatically, unable to keep up with the quickened party.

And then as Francis and Fearow flew north, the remaining Haunter stopped following them. Instead, they covered their mouth, looking like they were about to puke. They flew away.

Alexa watched the Haunter fly back to the tree pillars behind them, wondering why no wild Pokémon were in front of them anymore. And then when she looked ahead, she saw a massive clearing in the forest, bigger than any they had seen. And inside it, was a huge industrial facility. “Lord Arceus…”

They found the oil field.

Off Route 14

The thief was dead. Bridgette looked back to see his corpse, but she didn't see her Curse. Kabutops rocketed over to the corpse, Rock Polish used. With careful use of his blade arm, he picked the badges from the thief's corpse.

When he presented them, Bridgette struggled not to gag, closing her eyes as she reached out to grab them. Muttering to herself over and over, "what would mom say, what would mom say, what would mom say."

The mantra calmed her, not completely but enough to keep her head in the game. "We need to go," she said to Kabutops as he knelt and she climbed aboard.

She looked to Leafeon, who had gone after the other Quagsire. They wouldn't be seeing her again.

Third Rock Polish, and the two would be gone, taking off toward the cabin. Kabutops would begin to use Sword Dance into Iron Defense, switching between the two, until their arrival.

((Lemme know how many outta three I get, homeslice.))

Drifblim, meanwhile, followed the Gogat, watching curiously as the enemy Pokemon left the area. Turning back to the cabin, he'd go for the third Calm Mind, and then fourth through sixth if nothing interrupted them. He wasn't going to get too close, not before he was ready.

Shalour City

"Oh. Hey."

Salieri wasn't pumped about seeing Grant, mostly because the last time she did accompanied her painful beatdown of Loki and Helena's long tirade. But that wasn't something she would hold against him. He had nothing to do with it, after all. "Back home. I'm having technical difficulties with my PC, so..." Now she was reminded that Ivan was only letting her carry five Pokémon. She wondered if Mia was doing something about that.

Sal eyed Grant while sipping through her straw. "So how do you know Helena? Are you guys, uh-"

What was the thing Grant had said to her during their battle? The thing she didn't like about her and Ben? Sal gave him a juvenile grin and touched the tips of her index fingers together. "Uptown Funking?"